KINETIC STUDY OF PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF EMITTED NITROGEN MONOXIDE USING TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES IN CONCRETE PAVEMENTS

摘要

Photocatalytic pavements are a promising solution for air pollution remediation from automobile sources; however understanding its efficacy in real world environments remains a challenge. This study proposes using an environmental model based on the reaction kinetics as a method to evaluate the significance of pollution reduction that can be expected from photocatalytic pavements. Thus, as the first step towards developing an environmental model, the objective of this study was to model the photocatalytic reaction kinetics of NO reduction under different environmental conditions. To achieve this objective, photocatalytic concrete pavement samples were made using a two layer concrete system. Using a plug flow photoreactor, laboratory experimental results supported that the photocatalytic oxidation of NO was reaction controlled and adequately described by the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood constants were calculated for 25 unique environmental conditions by varying five levels of relative humidity and irradiance.